3 Levels of Organization in Evernote

If you didn’t catch my first post on why YOU should be using Evernote, please check that out before you continue with this. Those of you who have read it may have seen a glimpse of my total obsession with Evernote. I use Evernote for nearly everything that I write down. I like the fact that I can access everything I have ever written down in one spot.

 

I organize information for a living, and because of that, I am always on the lookout for programs and apps that can help people organize themselves effectively. One of the most basic functions that Evernote has is the 3 levels for organizing notes. Being able to organize your thoughts is critical to being organized because it is one of the most basic ways of organizing your thoughts.

 

 

1) The Notes – The first level of this is actual notes themselves. I organize my notes by making specific notes like lists or reminders of certain things that I will need to reference later on. One of my notes that I have is called “random note”, and I keep all kinds of random information there that doesn’t belong anywhere else. Naturally, Notes are great for writing down your different, well, notes, but they are also useful for making and separating reference points for later use.

 

There are many times when I have to reference information that I wouldn’t reference on a regular basis. Because the things that I reference generally have nothing to do with each other I put them in a note called “Random note” which serves as a dumping ground for any random information I may need. I always know where it is.

 

2) The Notebooks – The second organization level of that Evernote gives you is the Notebooks. I’ve been using Physical notebooks for years, but once I got on Evernote, I stopped using physical journals for nearly everything but random one-off notes. As of this post I still physically write them down in a physical notebook, but I will be fixing this relatively soon. The only issue that I have had with my journals was keeping my thoughts separated. I would have a couple of pages on something I would write about and then a grocery list, and then a book that I wanted to read or something else that was slightly random. The Notebooks within Evernote allow me to focus my thoughts because I can keep all my notes on a particular subject in one area.

 

I have one notebook for all of my Blog posts; I have another for all of my health information that I get from my yearly physicals, I have yet another notebook where I keep all of my learning materials or notes on courses that I have taken over the years. It’s crucial for me to separate these things by subject matter and I find that Evernote’s notebook system is an excellent way for me to focus on specific topics when I need to

 

3) The Stacks – The third level of organization that you can access through Evernote is that of having notebook “Stacks”. The stacks feature allows you to have multiple notebooks grouped. These larger groupings can make it so that you can have various notebooks on a broader theme all in one place. If you were to have all of your class notes in one stack and all your notes in another, you would be able to keep the notebooks separated for more efficient searching. I have three stacks that I use on a regular basis. I have all my personal notes in one pile, my work notes in another and all my writing notes in another.

 

The three main stacks that I use are my “personal” stack where I keep all of my Documents, My “Work” stack where I have all the documents that I use at my office, and my “Writing” stack where I have my blog posts and other writing that I have done over the years. I like using the stacks because it works as an effortless way to sort out all of your “huge buckets.”

 

With so much information in the world, and so much information that applies to our daily lives it seems reasonable to have a tool that you can sort everything out. Evernote can be that tool. I have found that being able to maintain a system where you can keep everything in one zone is so helpful. Being able to bounce around from my Blog Posts to my work notes to my personal notes all in one app makes me more efficient. If you have an Evernote account and aren’t using these three levels as efficiently as possible, I would highly recommend that you so do. If you do not have an Evernote account, you can click my affiliate link on the right-hand side and sign up there.

 

Evernote is an incredibly powerful tool which allows you many different methods which let you work digitally. It’s important to utilize every tool that Evernote has available because, like everything else in life, you get out of Evernote what you put into it.

 

Would you use Evernote?